Magazine / N Gamer

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NGamer was a third-party Nintendo-focused magazine, published in the United Kingdom and Ireland and translated for distribution in Spain, France, The Netherlands and Brazil.

The magazine began publication in the early 90's as Super Play, which focused on the Super NES and Game Boy. When the launch of the Nintendo 64 was imminent, the name changed to N64 Magazine, and when the Nintendo GameCube and Game Boy Advance were approaching release, it changed again into NGC Magazine. The name NGamer was adopted shortly before the launch of the Wii, and remained until the January 2012 issue when it was renamed Nintendo Gamer. The magazine was published 13 times per year at 4-week intervals, assigning one issue to each month, then releasing the remaining one for Christmas. The staff work at Future Publishing UK, which since 2003 has also been the home of the UK Official Nintendo Magazine ever since Nintendo stopped publishing it themselves.

The magazine was by far the longest-running unofficial UK publication that focuses primarily on Nintendo, surviving through a combination of market niches and high-quality writing. Ever since their inception, the magazine has had a high focus on import games (at least half of which never reach the British market, although they give a re-review and score if/when it becomes available locally), has consistently written news and reviews with a density of snark and honesty almost never seen in their market (made possible because they don't have to tote the company line), frequently features bizzare ideas for 'feature articles' and 'characters' to add to their aesthetic, and seems to consistently hire individuals who can combine quality work/writing with British humour. It is for this reason that their fanbase has become so tenacious without becoming unpleasable, staying with them despite their routine name/design/staff overhauls and the state of Nintendo's games market share. However, these defining traits seem to have diminished over time. The announcement that the magazine had been cancelled was made in August 2012, although it still continued online until early 2013.

In addition to that, one of the forum's users created a webforum, GNamer Forum, partly devoted to carrying on the spirit of the magazine.

The following tropes apply to the entire line of magazines, unless stated otherwise.

Examples

Broke the Rating Scale: Types 1, 3, 4 and 5 have all shown up, with games getting ratings that include -47%, :-(, Eh?, and No. Type 2 also shows up in the previews section: their anticipation for each game is rated out of five, with the unit relating to one of the games being previewed.

In their past as NGC Magazine, they once gave Giftpia and Get A Love Panda Love Unit a ?? rating each, having absolutely no clue whatsoever what was going on due to the fact that both, especially Giftpia was Japan-only complete with entirely Japanese text. Despite this though they gave 8 and 7 to the former's graphics and sound, reckoning that "There's clearly a quite brilliant game lurking beneath the realms of the Japanese text."

Footnote Fever: Used and parodied repeatedly, for example one review featured a mention of Alien 3 With a footnote explaining that the superscript 3 is part of the title and thus you shouldn't be reading this footnote.

MacGyvering: One "guide" for installing the then brand-new N64 Expansion Pak had Jes levering the old RAM cartridge out with a spoon because he had somehow broken the plastic tool that came with the Pak. And then getting savagely beaten because he had stolen the Expansion Pak from someone else to begin with.

Note From Ed: Up there with Amiga Power. At least one fan jokingly asked why "Ed" was never listed as part of the staff.

Pass Through the Rings : The infamous Lex Luthor catchphrase "Solve My Maze!" from Superman 64's first level was the staff's favourite aspect of all the sub-20%-scoring games they had reviewed, so for a stretch of issues following their conversion into NGC Magazine, they licensed an image of Lex Luthor and added a 'Solve My Maze' cut-out-and-keep footer to one page per issue, in a similar manner to child-level puzzle publications. The puzzles themselves were often nonsensical and impossible to solve. On the last month of the license period, the segment changed to 'Solve My Murder', giving the Luthor image X eyes and providing an open-ended puzzle to determine the murder weapon.

Running Gag: So many that there's almost no chance of compiling a full list. One recent example is Ninja Cat, an item from Tenchu 4, which is their equivalent of the Chuck Norris jokes.

Possibly the most famous recent example is "Worth Seven Pounds!!". Originally announced about one of the free gifts that came with the issue (a plastic Wii Wheel).

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